TFHackett

Lockup: Westview

And you thought the only businesses in town were Montoni’s and the Komix Korner? Welcome to the redundantly named WESTVIEW PRISON. Like all the signage in Westview, the prison sign looks like it’s hand drawn on oak tag with Magic Markers…I’m surprised it’s not Scotch taped to the fence. This drawn-out sequence which adds nothing to the narrative (we didn’t see Jessica driving to her other interviews) reminds me of Dean’s Comic Booth’s great parody of Darin’s birth mother quest.

Moss Def

Batiuk would have us remember a character he killed off 23 years ago, yet he doesn’t trust us to recall Jessica’s name from one day to the next. “How goes the documentary, JESS?” “Who’s next on stage for the documentary, JESS?” And to the list of things about which Batiuk has no idea how they work, add documentaries. It’s one thing to have her use cheap home video equipment, but any halfway serious filmmaker would undertake a project, especially one as deeply personal as this, with some kind of outline. We’ve had a week of Jessica running around gathering unflattering anecdotes about her late father. Now she finds herself forced (“I didn’t want to have to do this…”) to finally get serious.

Grate Expectations

Today’s strip is just chock-full of dialogue, all of it loopy and stilted. At least someone uses a little tact when speaking about the late John Darling: his daughter. “A great self-appreciator” sounds much kinder that “egomaniacal jerk.” And it’s easier to accept that he used to “grate on people” versus “making their workplace a living hell.”

But…Darling’s murder “still a mystery”? Les wrote (and somehow published, despite losing the manuscript) a goddam book about it. Did he leave the last chapter out?

Making Phun of Phil

In a nod to realism, today we see Jessica actually employing a tripod as she interviews Phil the Forecaster. Seems like John Darling’s contempt for humanity extended to everyone from the lowly intern to the expert meteorologist. Add Phil to the list of people happy to see Darling dead.

Intern-minable

Wait: one gets “choked up” recalling fond memories, no? So what is it about the dressing down that intern Candy received from MyDadJohnDarling that makes her get emotional all these years later? Maybe it was the way his little hand seemed to completely detach from his wrist. Like a cursor. By the way, if you’re just joining us: nobody who knew him liked John Darling.